BOE has had a cracking 2018 having already been the top panel supplier for smartphone, tablet and notebook applications. Now it says that it has numbers from Sigmaintell Consulting, which show it beat LG Display to become the world's largest supplier of LCD TV and monitor panels recently.

Apparently, in 2018, BOE shipped 54.3 million TV panels to capture the crown compared to 48.6 million units shipped by second-ranked LG Display.

More data compiled by All View Consulting (AVC) showed that global shipments of monitor panels increased 10 percent to 151 million units in 2018; of the total shipments, BOE contributed the highest volume with 37.3 million units, followed by LG Display with 34.5 million units.

BOE said that its monitor panel shipments increased 24 percent on year in terms of unit shipments and 45 percent in terms of area shipments in 2018.

This year might not be so good as competition in the monitor panel sector is expected to heat up in 2019 due to capacity ramp-ups and aggressive pricing strategies from CEC-Panda LCD Technology and China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT).

CEC-Panda will cater to the 21.5-, 23.8- and 32.5-inch segments, while CSOT will focus on 21.5-, 23.6- and 31.5-inch sectors, the sources added.

CEC-Panda is jacking up its high-end, large-size display segment deployments to compete directly with AU Optronics (AUO) and LG Display. CSOT is moving to increase its presence in the curved and gaming panel sectors in 2019.

Sigmaintell's data showed that global shipments of notebook panels edged up 4.5 percent on year to 185 million units in 2018, with BOE, AUO, Innolux and LG Display serving as the top-four vendors in sequence, and their shipments accounting for 90 percent worldwide shipments in the year.